when people ask me what my favorite band is, i have a hard time answering. i love cocorosie but explaining their style and how i listen to it is too difficult for a simple, shallow conversation. i also can’t answer with ‘the playlist whose title matches my mood’ because that’s too vague and precarious and never a nice thing to respond with. so i default to death cab for cutie. it’s weird hearing people’s opinions on them. sometimes they’ll laugh and remember how awesome and visceral those concerts were, or sometimes they’ll smile and breathe out a nostalgic “ohhhyeah!” and recall their older favorite songs. other times they’ll grin and refer to “that song, the one about following in the dark” but what i don’t understand is the popular reaction i’ve been getting lately: where they’ll roll their eyes and talk about how they used to listen to them in high school and they’re surprised with my choice given my palette of tastes. they’ll loftily talk about how the lyrics are soooo overrated and the band sounds like shit now that they’ve gotten older and moved on to better things. maybe i’m naive and more aware of music snobbery now that i’ve become more comfortable with NewEnglandLiberalArtsElistism but i don’t know, i still like them. or maybe it’s just a telltale sign of an unwillingness to let go of an old love, of something that meant so much to me as a teenager.

regardless of whether they ‘sound like shit’ or they’re still liked, i know that secretly, at some point, getting drunk on red wine in a paper cup to plans or transatlanticism still happens at even the most indie of parties.